


Blooming

by twistedthicket1



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Agender Chara, Canon Compliant, Chara's Backstory, Chara-centric, Complete, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Other, Past Abuse, Pre-Frisk, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-02 23:44:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8688211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedthicket1/pseuds/twistedthicket1
Summary: A look into the life of the True Fallen Human. What made Chara who they were when Frisk found them? Where did they come from? Why did they hate humanity?





	1. Your Best Friend

**Author's Note:**

> so the second part is already written. It should be up soon. I made this a long time ago and only just now got back to finishing it ^_^ Warnings are all above, but I'm assuming if you've played undertale you can probably guess that Chara's origins would not be all buttercups and golden flowers. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!

 

Asriel knew one, unchangeable rule in the bottom of his heart: Underground, things did not change. Stasis, a word that he had read in one of his mother’s many textbooks. To be unshifting.

This very much described his world, and the people within it. That was not to say that some did not try. The star caves were a poor substitute for an idea, Snowdin another mimicry of something that simply was not meant to exist in a world of rock and stone. 

 

His mother used to tell him as much about the things his father; the king; made for his people so that they might feel just a bit happier. Structures, illusions of memories of a time that was lost to Asriel’s generation, so long ago. Toriel would sit in her large, comfortable chair, and Asriel would curl up in her lap and listen. His mother would run her hands behind his ears as she spoke, scratching white fur as she’d speak earnestly about  _ bees  _ and  _ snails  _ and  _ flowers.  _ They were treasures in her mind, and Asriel listened and heard in her words an outstretched longing for something unknown. 

 

His father, though not one to talk much about things of the surface or of what cast all Monsters down into the Underground, would listen to these stories from the table. After, when Toriel was finished her stories, off and humming under her breath as she tended to the fire, his father would draw near. His hand, a veritable paw of white fur and strength and warmth would rest on Asriel’s shoulders, and dark brown eyes would look into his own. He would regard Asriel from the corner of his eye, and later at night, he’d describe the sharper, uglier reasons why as king he kept his people far away from surface and light. There was safety in stone walls. 

 

So like this, nothing changed. Back then, Asriel was not so sure he minded. After all, this world, his friends and the people his family watched over… it was all he knew.

 

****

The ruins were perhaps not the safest place to play, and yet on that day Asriel’s mother was too busy, distracted in her sweet way to notice that her son had snuck out. Not that it really mattered, all Monsters in the land knew him by sight and name, and so tended to look out for him. Asriel didn’t fear the puzzles that littered the place, simple games of strategy and patience. 

 

So he found himself wandering, drawing nearer and nearer to the edge of where the land met darkness and The Barrier. 

 

Except this time, Asriel found something else, lying at the foot of the stone. Or rather, some _ one.  _

It was a lump of some _ one,  _ to be precise, and for a moment Asriel paused. His heart seemed to leap into his throat as he saw the stillness of the figure, thinking it for a moment a Monster that had fallen. He took off towards the lump without thinking, running towards it with a peculiar mix of adrenaline and wariness singing in his bones. 

For what the young Monster found upon closer inspection made him shiver with shock, for it was no Monster at all. 

 

Asriel found himself looking at a Human Being, still and practically lifeless, save for the faintest flutterings of breath. Unconscious, a head wound bled sluggishly onto cold stone. Dark brown hair covered the Human’s face, covering their eyes which were shut. The blood was bright, and it was something that Asriel had only read of. Monsters did not bleed red, and they most certainly did not bleed from such a little fall. A little fall, right  _ through  _ The Barrier, however. Asriel looked up into the darkness of the ceiling then, swallowing tightly. 

 

Such a small Human… and all alone. Injured. Asriel’s paws tightened together in worry. Without a mother, or father, or anyone to guide them when they woke up. That was,  _ if  _ they woke up. The young Monster hesitated in leaving then, because he was truthfully unsure as to how hard the Human had hit their head. It  _ seemed  _ pretty hard, but then again as he crept closer and closer, the young Monster could see they were already bruised. Shins were scratched, and a ragged sweater of green and yellow spoke of better days. Asriel’s mother  _ always  _ made sure his clothes were clean before going outside. She also would have made sure he had never wandered somewhere he could really hurt himself. 

 

It was in that moment his decision was made. Reaching out, Asriel placed one paw on the Human’s shoulder, nudging them carefully. Warmth enveloped his palm, a heartbeat steady at the juncture of the Human’s neck. There was a low, thick groan, and then Asriel watched as dark eyes fluttered open. The irises were the deep colour of tea, a brown that almost verged on crimson in the light. 

Human and Monster stared at one another a moment, perhaps in surprise, perhaps merely in observation. 

Asriel’s voice felt thick in his lungs when he spoke.

“Are you ok? What’s your name? You’re hurt...”

 

The Human sat up slowly, limbs limp as though they were a doll someone had discarded. Their blood dripped onto the cuff of their pants, staining. Asriel watched as the Human gingerly reached to touch their head, wincing as it smarted. Tears, welled up in their eyes at the surprise of the pain. They looked up at Asriel, and as they did the tears overflowed, falling down their cheeks. 

“Chara. My name...it’s Chara.” 

 

****

Humans had small hands, and smaller footsteps. At least, this human did. Asriel helped them walk back to his house, Chara’s legs unsteady and their countenance quiet. The trip was long, back to the kingdom, but Asriel pressed forward as quickly as he could. The Human didn’t speak for the entirety of the journey, though they gripped the edges of Asriel’s sweater tightly. He could swear he could feel the crescents of their fingernails, blunted compared to a Monster’s, ragged and bloody from their fall. 

Asriel didn’t speak much either, though it was more due to the fact that despite the human’s size, they were kind of heavy. 

 

His mum met them at the tree outside their home, and one look at the two of them and she was already flying to make arrangements. Toriel was a whirlwind when she had a purpose, and she never stepped it up like when she had someone that needed looking after. A mattress was cleared, and Chara’s head wound treated with gentle paws. Asriel watched from a seated place on the floor of his room, seeing those dark, strange eyes flick from place to place without settling on any one thing. 

 

When his mum finished, Asriel scooted himself closer to the bed. He watched as the Human drifted off to sleep, the dark circles under their eyes like lines worn into their skin. Still, they seemed young, all freckles and rosy cheeks and pale skin. How peculiar. The Humans he had heard of in bedtime stories were always painted as monstrous. 

As if reading his thoughts, Chara turned their head. Dark eyes looked into Asriel’s seriously. Starting a bit at being caught out for staring, Asriel flushed. 

“I. I’m s-sorry. It’s just…”

“I’ve never seen a Monster, before.” The voice interrupted him, clear and calm. Chara smiled just a little at Asriel’s self-deprecating laugh. He looked down at his paws. 

“We must be pretty strange-looking, then.”  _ You certainly are to me. _

 

When no response came, Asriel risked a glance. To his amusement, the Human had already drifted off back to sleep. 

 

****

Chara healed quickly, and with their recovery, their curiosity seemed to bloom. They were still quiet, but their dark eyes seemed to absorb everything they took in with fascination. They had a dry sense of humour, and could be charming, when it suited them. They had a nice smile, though in private Asriel admitted that it was not entirely a true one. Rather, it was a rusty and disused thing, a painful rictus that seemed to be more motion than memory.

Chara was at their most honest when they were staring, gazing in that intense way they had as if the entire world had narrowed down to a pin. 

 

Asriel just delighted in having a playmate, after spending so much time alone in the Underground with just his father and mother for company. He quickly showed Chara around his home, and he watched as his new friend held Echo Flowers in their hands and marvelled at underground waterfalls, how the rare laugh that emerged became more frequent. The quiet, demure child that Chara had been had begun to fade around Asriel, and the two became thick as thieves together. Their favourite game was make-believing adventures, and Chara was very good at making up heroic stories for them to act out. 

 

Their favourites, they both agreed, were to do with pirates. 

“Avast!” Asriel crowed from atop a ledge of rocks by the trash heaps. He held up a wooden dagger, waving it about like an extension of his arm. Below him, Chara stood, an eyepatch over one eye and a worn captain’s hat atop their head. Asriel pointed his dagger in their direction, golden eyes glinting mischievously. “Drop your weapon, or I’ll make ye walk the plank!”

“It’ll be a cold day in the Underground before I bow to  _ you. _ ” Chara retorted, smirking as they levelled their own weapon: a piece of pipe found in the trash. 

 

Roaring in triumph, Asriel charged down the garbage heap, the fur of his ears moving puppy-like with the motion. He struck at Chara, feinting majestically at the last moment so that the attack didn’t strike true. 

It wasn’t needed, his friend was already swerving to dodge. Their weapons clashed, the two of them giggling as they were locked in false battle. They tussled like that for a moment, play-fighting it out until one of them gave. 

It was always Asriel, in the end. Chara didn’t give up, even when they were outmatched. They fought dirty too, sometimes tugging Asriel’s sensitive ears or sweeping his legs out from under him with their foot. The goat-Monster cheerfully allowed it, huffing as he lifted his sword upwards in surrender. He lay on the ground, laughing and breathless as Chara levelled the pipe under his chin. 

“Give in.” They growled in a mock-frightening voice, a curling smile on their face. It was a wicked expression, impish and reserved only for Asriel when he was being especially amusing. In truth, he could see how some might find it unsettling. Chara smiled the way a predator tore into a carcass, all teeth and savagely, their entire face animated and sharp. Yet it was an alive feature, and so much better to Asriel than the careful mask they normally wore. Every time Chara used it, he felt as though he had been awarded special favour. A smile at all on his friend, their honest one at least, was rare. 

He bravely lifted his chin, deciding to go out with honour. 

“You’ll have to kill me, first.” Asriel declared dramatically, adding in a flailing motion with his arms for effect. He bleated in indignation when his friend merely used the pipe to poke his side, where he was ticklish. 

 

Chara snorted, the grin falling from their face to make way for exasperation. Lowering their weapon, they instead extended their hand. 

“Idiot.” They muttered. Asriel was learning to take insults as affection. He beamed up at his friend, accepting their help. 

“The best kind.” He replied. 

 

****

 

Chara wasn’t like other Monsters, but maybe that was to be expected. In truth, it wouldn’t have made sense to Asriel if they  _ had been.  _ Yet he got the impression, sometimes, that Chara wasn’t exactly like most Humans, either. 

 

It was hard to read his friend’s face, when they decided to close off their emotions from the outside world. This happened a lot, at the beginning. Like a frightened animal, Chara was slow to warm to others. At the same time, they seemed to also desperately crave affection. 

For the first few months of their stay at the Dreemurr’s castle, they hid a lot in the room they shared with Asriel. Chara was wary of Toriel and Asgore, and seemed to dislike asking for any help with anything. They came out of the room only to scrounge for food, and they took little, as if they were afraid that someone would call them out for it. 

Toriel made sure to leave snacks about the house, things she knew children liked. In particular, she discovered chocolate went missing fast. 

Chara also collected things for themselves, and guarded them jealously once claimed. Books found their way under the child’s new bed, along with drawings and crayons and for some reason a half dozen pairs of Asriel’s socks. 

 

He caught Chara snatching a pair from his dresser, once. When he asked for them back, the Human had snarled, curling away from him as if expecting a blow. When none came, they’d looked at Asriel like a deer caught between crosshairs, before scrabbling back to their side of the room like a demon was hot on their heels. 

When Asriel mentioned the scene to his mother, her eyes had grown very wide and very sad. She made a point from then on to be very gentle in her movements around their new house-guest, and patient if Chara hid or grew angry. Asgore, even larger and perhaps more fearsome in physical appearance, seemed to do his best to curl inwards on himself whenever possible. 

 

The anger was rarer than the distrust, but it reared its head now and again as well. Chara was often hard, stubborn in their wants and yet fragile to criticism. The first few months brought a lot of arguing, between Asriel and his new houseguest, and sometimes Chara’s rage got away from them. They had hit him once when they were alone outside and having a disagreement, red in the face and screaming. 

Yet that expression had melted away into confusion, raw and uncomprehending when Asriel didn’t strike back. Instead, he was ashamed to admit he began to cry, great heaving sobs that that blubbered and made his shoulders shake. 

“You’re supposed to hit back.” Chara had stuttered blankly, and when Asriel merely wailed harder, they had begun crying as well. 

 

Toriel had found the two of them like that, crying out of frustration, and crying because they didn’t understand how the world around them worked any more. She had picked the two of them up in her arms, tutting and sighing to herself. It was the first time Chara let her hold them, and in truth she had been surprised at the lack of fight. The queen counted it as a victory, and thought maybe the tears were a sign that things were finally turning around. 

She made snail pie that night for celebration, and to cheer her two children up. 

Asgore and Asriel had loved it, Chara endured it with a false smile but a genuine effort. 

 

For the first time, Toriel looked at them and saw something soft in those irises, so flat and jaded against everything around them. 

 

****

In time, the Monsters of the Underground all knew and loved the adopted child of the king and queen. 

Chara, impossibly it seemed, loved them back. It was a fierce love, the kind that consumed everything. They could be seen in the afternoons reading with Asgore, curled up in the king’s lap under the boughs of a great tree outside of their home. In the mornings, they baked with Toriel, or learned lessons she organised for her children (although Chara often chafed during them, longing to be outside and moving). The once fearful, lonely Human now loved Asriel especially, and could often be found glued to his side. They were at once a friend and a bodyguard, quiet but unshakable in their presence. 

 

Asriel had always wondered what it might be like to have a sibling. He was glad to say that now, he knew. It was friendship, warm days spent together at Waterfall, swimming in the pools that collected there. It was late nights staying up, whispering to one another about hopes and dreams for the future. It was loyalty. Unwavering, unshakable faith in the other person. 

They were best friends, and they would be together forever. 

  
  


****

“Chara, how come you’ve never tried to leave the Underground?” 

Asriel didn’t know what made him ask the question, nearly a year since his sibling had come to the Underground. Perhaps it was watching the grey shadow of the kingdom on the horizon, tall and silent in the darkness, perhaps it was the shining of crystals upon the ceiling, blue-green and bright.

Chara was staring out towards the castle’s direction, but something about their gaze seemed lost, otherworldly. They always seemed older with that expression on their face, not so much a child but a very tired adult, trapped in a smaller body. With his question, their hands tightened about their knees. The skin around their nail beds was picked at, flaking. They lifted one knuckle, sucking at the reddened flesh in a habit brought on by intense thought or stress. Their gaze was flat. 

“Above… I wasn’t happy,” Chara finally replied after a long beat of silence, staring at their hands. “The people in my village, they thought… They didn’t like the fact that I had something, something most Humans don’t have. At least, not any more.” 

 

They flicked their gaze then in Asriel’s direction, the brown of their eyes flickering almost red in the darkness. Asriel could feel the oldness of his friend’s stare, and was uncomfortably aware of the fact that Chara’s more childish persona was frequently a sham. Their Soul was old, both literally and metaphorically, and when Asriel looked at it he saw the cracks and chips that other hands had beaten into it. It pulsed red, a dark wine colour that was bright to look at despite its injuries. 

“They hurt you?” He asked, even though a part of him knew the answer. Chara’s mouth was a thin line as they nodded slowly, their gaze turning back towards the outline of the city. 

“They did what Humans do best, Az,” Chara murmured. There was steel in their voice, sudden hatred that spat acid in the darkness. “They  _ broke  _ me. And then they left me for dead, at the foot of the mountain. All because I was  _ different.  _ Because I couldn’t  _ control-  _ It doesn’t matter. They thought I was better off dead, thought my family was better off dead if I stayed with them. So I  _ listened  _ and tried to disappear.” Their voice cracked then, and Asriel watched as Chara’s fingers tightened into fists, balled as they were in their sweater. 

 

It was a while before either of them spoke again, Chara’s words leaving a weight that felt more oppressive than the mountain itself. How could anything be said? There were no words that could make what had happened better, and no consolation that Asriel could give that would take the haunted expression out of his best friend’s face. He couldn’t imagine Monsters ever being as cruel as the Humans Chara had described. To a child? It would be unheard of. His dad had always spoken of Humans with hesitation, as if he were reluctant to label them as purely “evil”. Yet Chara, they did not hold any of their hate back. It was clear in the posture of their spine, in the set of their shoulders. 

  
  


When the goat-Monster  _ could  _ speak again, he found that he couldn’t stop the tears from making his voice hoarse. He cried while Chara’s eyes remained bone-dry, tired and staring out at once at everything, and nothing. 

“You belong here,” Asriel hissed, his chest tight and his voice earnest. He grabbed his sibling by their shoulders, pulling them into an embrace that was as much for his own benefit as theirs. “Mom and dad love you,  _ I  _ love you. You can stay here, a-and you d-don’t need to try and l-leave like that e-ever-” 

Chara hushed him then, apologising even as they held their brother while he sobbed. 

“I wish I  _ was  _ a Monster,” They whispered. Asriel had nothing to say, only crying harder. He could feel the curve of Chara’s smile on his neck, sad and small. “All of you, you don’t  _ want  _ to hurt anything. I wish I knew what that was like. To not  _ want  _ to hurt people. I’m just like the rest of my kind. Cruel, selfish.”

“You’re not bad.” Asriel croaked. 

“I am not good either, Az.” Chara softly countered. They didn’t sound bothered by this fact, merely stating it as one might the weather. Asriel’s paws tightened about their shoulders. His voice was a snarl, the closest thing to angry Chara had ever heard from him.

“I don’t care, you’re my friend. You changed things here, people have  _ hope  _ now. Before… before mom and dad had given up. Monsters, had given up. We didn’t think we could make it to the surface, but with you we might! We might not even  _ need  _ the surface, with you here,” His voice softened “Monsters have hope, again.” 

“I’ll hurt you.” 

“You won’t.” He denied, his voice steady in the face of his friend’s trembling frame. Chara was shaking in his arms, though they still didn’t cry. Their hands tightened their hold on his sweater. Through gritted teeth, they smiled. 

“You don’t deserve to be the ones trapped down here,” Chara muttered “Not by a long shot.” 

 

Asriel merely sniffled into their shoulder, unaware of the Determination growing in their sibling’s Soul. Chara glared at nothing, their gaze hard and unyielding. 

 

****

“You sure like gardening, huh; Dad? This is beautiful.” 

Chara’s voice drifted over the sweet heat of a Magically-induced summer, the dregs of Hotland making the kingdom’s Throne room a sweat box in the middle of the day. Asgore’s massive form knelt hunched over the flowers he so carefully tended, his massive paws layered with soil. 

 

He turned to look at his child affectionately, gaze warm and modest. All around him, pink petals bloomed, their sweet scent filling the air and turning it cloyingly sweet. To Chara, it looked like the place bees might like to linger, if they existed deep within the mountain. As it was, the absence of them leant an artificial feeling to the place, cold and dead despite the attempted warmth. 

“They are roses, my child. This year, I thought a bit of colour might do the throne room some good. Your mother quite likes these, though they require some effort to care for.” His deep voice rumbled, carrying towards the shadow of the entrance Chara stood in. 

Straightening, Asgore brushed his paws off, his great horns nearly striking the ceiling as he rose to his full height. He smiled at Chara, curious by their quiet presence. “Is there something you would like to ask me, Chara?” 

 

Dark eyes flicked to Asgore’s face, then down at Chara’s feet. They were often shy, asking for things directly. Nervous, they fiddle with the hem of their sweater a moment, biting their lip before gathering up the courage to ask. 

“I… I like flowers. I miss them. From before. My… my village,” Asgore did not show surprise, but inside he was startled. Chara rarely spoke of the time before they came to the Underground, and when they had they often held nothing but scorn in their voice. He carefully tread this topic, sensing old hurts hidden deep inside. 

“Scents bring strong memories. Flowers connect people, in that way. Did you garden much, before?” 

They cracked a small, mirthless grin, shaking their head. 

“No. But there were buttercups on the edge of the village.”

“I’m afraid I do not know that flower’s name, though I might know it to see it.” 

“They’re yellow. Gold? Golden.” Chara whispered, their arms wrapping tightly about their middle. A faraway look had overcome their features. “I liked them because they were small, nothing really fancy. But… they were beautiful, dad. There were… so many.” 

Asgore smiled softly, his expression gentle. 

“Chara, if you can draw me a picture of the flowers, I might be able to find them for you. I could plant them the next season, when the Roses have died.” 

 

Something in Chara’s eyes flickered, Asgore took it for surprise.

“You would do that, for me?” 

The king stepped forward then, hugging Chara close to him. He dwarfed the child with his size, but his arms were gentle. 

“Of course, Chara.” 

  
  


****

“Now, the secret to a good pie crust is a little Magic, and a lot of butter.” Toriel’s voice floated through the kitchen, a musical hum that captivated both of her children. Both Asriel and Chara wore matching aprons and sweaters, identical expressions of curiosity on their faces as they watched their mother fold pie dough in on itself on the counter. Asriel’s chin could just now reach the top of the counter, his green-brown eyes wide with anticipation. Chara; by comparison, had to stand upon a stool. 

“You need to fold flour into the dough, but not too much. Not enough flour, and it’ll get sticky, but too much and the dough will crack.” Toriel demonstrated as much, showing her children how the dough between her hands was elastic but not gooey. Asriel was practically drooling, he loved snail pie, and was more interested in the eating than the making process. 

 

The banging of the front door was scarcely registered, until Asgore stepped into the kitchen. There were only a handful of times Asriel could remember his father being angry about something, but they were moments that could scarcely be forgotten. Many Monsters simply didn’t think about the fact that Asgore was a Boss Monster, capable of being menacing or vastly destructive should he so choose. His height meant he towered, and his horns could look like cruel weapons when his face was twisted in anger. 

Chara instinctively cowered, wide-eyed and frightened even though they could see the anger was not directed at them. Toriel moved in front of them, offering a protective presence. Her voice was calm and steeled.

 

“Asgore, what’s wrong?” 

The king paced in their living room, his expression dark. His voice was low, and it reached a tone that could best be described as a growl. 

“The royal scientist has come to me to ask something unforgivable.” He hissed, dark eyes trained on the floor. His massive paws, now seeming almost claw-like, ran through his hair. 

“What is he asking for?” Toriel demanded, a seriousness in her tone implying to the children that they should go to their room. Neither child moved, Chara frozen in place and Asriel unwilling to leave them. Sensing a heavy topic, Toriel’s gaze darted towards her children. It was with a calming paw that she nudged Chara out of their stupor, in the process nudging Asriel. 

“My children, perhaps it is best if you went to your room.” Asriel seized the chance. Gripping Chara’s sleeve, he tugged their lifeless form towards their bedroom. 

 

The sound of their parent’s hushed bickering left Asriel with a churning stomach of unease, and Chara in muted inner contemplation.

  
  


****

Lying in the darkness of their room, Asriel almost didn’t hear it when Chara softly called his name. He was half-asleep, almost beginning to dream. Images of beautifully baked pies and pirate ships from picture books filled his head. He blinked sleepily, turning towards his sibling’s voice.

 

Chara’s eyes glinted in the dark, wide awake. They were curled on their side, hands bunched in the covers of their bed. Their dark hair, slightly curling from bedhead formed a halo about their face. They spoke in a whisper, though Asriel was close enough that it was all that was needed. 

“Asriel… Az, are you awake?”

He grunted sleepily, one paw rubbing at his eyes. Slowly, he rolled over to face his sibling, voice thick with dreams. 

“Chara? What time is it?” Chara didn’t at once respond, their hands merely tightening their grip on their sheets. They seemed to deliberate a moment, something hesitant in their expression. Asriel blinked, waking up a little more as he saw how serious Chara was. He watched as they seemed to gather their determination up before speaking. 

“Listen… What if… What if I told you I had a plan. To get everyone out of the Underground.” 

 

The words didn’t make sense. No one could get Monsters out of the Underground. Asriel almost laughed, but there was something dark flickering in Chara’s features. He realised uneasily that they were dead serious. His voice was a squeak in the dark. 

“Chara… what do you mean?”

“I mean… what if I knew a way… a way bring Monsters back to the surface?”

 

Asriel sat up, his dark brown eyes hugely solemn. He considered his sibling’s statement for a moment, before carefully replying. Outside, aboveground… it was as alien as it was desirable. 

“I would say then we should do it.” 

Chara’s mouth twitched, seeming to work up the courage for what they wanted to say. When they did, it made Asriel’s fur stand on end. 

“It would mean… some bad things would need to happen.” 

“What do you mean?”

“I’d need to be sure… I mean. It would have to be tested.” 

 

Not liking the edginess of their tone, Asriel’s snout crinkled. 

“Tested?”

“It wouldn’t hurt him, not really.” Chara whispered “Just make him sick. And then… then I’d know… know for sure.” 

“Chara… I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”

“Do you trust me?” They abruptly asked, something intense in their voice. Asriel blinked in surprise, staring at their sibling in shock. How could they even  _ ask  _ that? 

“Of course,” He murmured, even though he didn’t like how vague Chara was being. Seeming satisfied with that answer, Chara hummed. They clutched their blankets more tightly about them, the light of their eyes flickering for a moment, red-brown. 

“If you trust me, you’ll do what I ask you.” They murmured. Before Asriel could ask what they meant, Chara rolled over so that their back was facing the centre of the room. 

 

Asriel tried to have them tell him more, but eventually gave it up as a distressingly lost cause. 

  
  


****

It was an immediate reaction. One slice of pie, and Asgore was vomiting. The reaction was violent, almost shockingly so. Asriel had stumbled back from the consequence of his and Chara’s actions, terrified. 

 

Toriel’s own reaction was immediate. She leapt from her place in the comfortable rocking chair she habitually sat in, rushing to her husband’s side. What followed next was several hours of unnattractive puking, Asriel crying, and Asgore eventually being sent to his bed. All of this Chara spent following in silence, a ghost gliding in and out of the room with quiet intensity. No one paid them much mind, hurried as they were with the illness of the king. The entire underground it seemed filed in and out of their tiny home that evening, to heal or offer words of advice. 

 

In the end, it was ruled that accidental poisoning was the cause. 

Asgore, good-natured and sympathetic to his children’s mistakes, did not see how Chara could not meet his gaze. 

“It was an accident, and the two of you are not at fault.” He murmured from his bed. “Buttercups are deadly, cups of butter, are not.”

"I'm sorry, Dad." Asriel sobbed. Asgore ran his paw along his son's head.

"There is nothing to be sorry for. You didn't know." 

Chara, curled as they were at their father's side, merely twisted their hands further into the blankets. They stared out into the darkness of the room, their brow furrowed as the inklings of an idea began to invade like a twisting vine.    
  


****

Time passed, and so flowers withered and died. New ones took their place, little sprouts that soon bloomed into golden blossoms. 

Chara watched their growth with a hooded gaze, their hands tightening and untightening at their sides. 

They were beautiful, in the throne room, they bathed the floor in a plush carpet of light. 

  
Kneeling, Chara picked a handful, examining the blossoms with clinical detachment. The only sense of discomfort that could be seen was the minute trembling of their fingers. In the darkness of Underground’s night, they held the blossoms to their lips, inhaling the sweet scent of them. They tasted like perfume on their tongue.

This was for Asriel. 

This, was for everyone. 

They would force change. 


	2. Game Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and this is the end. It's not happy, but something tells me if you're reading this fic you didn't expect it to be :P   
> Let me know if you liked it! Thank you so much for reading ^_^

_ “Mom! Dad!”  _

The screaming shout woke Toriel from a dead sleep, the goat Monster jerking up from her bed to find Asriel’s silhouette at her bedroom door. Beside her, Asgore woke more slowly, an expression of bewilderment and confusion soon melting into fear on his face when he heard his son’s sobbing. 

 

“What is it, what’s happened?” Toriel all but leapt from the bed, fearing Asriel was hurt. Her son was dressed in pyjamas, crying loudly in a way that he very rarely managed. Toriel only just made it to his personal space when he was tugging at her robes, yanking her as hard as he could in the direction of the throne room. Asriel’s voice was a strangled croak. His words sent dread lancing through Toriel’s chest. 

_ “It’s Chara.”  _

 

His words had Asgore running behind them to catch up, his sleep forgotten in the wake of fear. 

 

Chara had never looked  _ fragile,  _ even at their most vulnerable. There had always been a kind of gravity about them, a seriousness that made them appear older than their true age. Yet in the halo of early light that spilled into the throne room, the crumpled form before the three Monsters appeared to be made of glass. They were illuminated in a halo, surrounded by the golden flowers they’d so carefully looked after. 

Asriel let out a wail as he saw them once again, trying to lunge for Chara. Asgore had only just the presence of mind to tug him back, to let Toriel reach their child first. She knelt over her child, her hand covering her mouth as the other pressed to Chara’s forehead. 

“Burning hot.” She muttered, before seeming to snap to attention. She scooped Chara’s small frame into her arms, whirling to face Asgore. Her voice was a thin wire, pulled taut with tension. 

“Bring every healer.  _ Now.”  _

 

Asgore, never one to be able to stand under that tone, led his crying son away to do as he was bid. 

What happened next was a flurry of activity that Asriel felt at once apart of and yet separated. He could remember the events in snapshots before his eyes. Each blink brought action that he couldn’t differentiate from his own memory. One moment, he was watching Monsters he’d known all his life lay soaking cloths on Chara’s burning forehead. The next, he was remembering that day they’d sat out in the sun shining down from the opening at the peak of the mountain. He’d had a camera, that day. He’d tried to make Chara smile and instead left the lens on. The memory bled into the horrible sounds of his sibling crying out in pain, begging in wordless cries for someone to make the agony stop. Asriel thought the sound wound haunt him for the rest of his life, a thin wail that crawled up his spine and sat as nausea in his throat. 

 

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but it was enough that the sweater he wore smelled stale, and his hands shook with exhaustion. Most of the Monsters had left, expressions of grief already beginning to wear on their faces. There was nothing to do but wait. No more could be done, from this point on it was up to Chara whether or not they’d live, or die. Asriel watched as his mother and father fell into exhausted sleep by their child’s bedside, crumpled against one another as if bracing themselves against a cruel wind. He wondered how they could sleep. He felt tireless, staring at his sibling’s sickly form. He felt as though he’d never be able to sleep again. 

 

The barest of stirrings caught Asriel’s attention. He latched onto it, his breath tight with hope. Chara’s eyes were a glimmer of crimson as they woke. They peered at him in silence, their breathing harsh. In the dark, they lifted a hand. It was a wordless plea for Asriel to come closer. He couldn’t refuse, drawn as if on invisible strings towards them. 

 

Chara’s voice was a rasp, so that Asriel was forced to lean down to hear them. He knelt on the floor to better hear, so that the curve of his fluffy white ear was pressed to their lips. 

“Az…” Chara breathed “You need… to take it… when I go.”

He didn’t know what they were saying. Chara wasn’t allowed to  _ go.  _

“What do you mean?” He asked. His own voice was tightly strung. Chara’s cold fingers found his paw, and they wound themselves tightly about his palm. They dragged it towards their chest, so that Asriel found Chara’s fluttering pulse lay beneath it. 

“It’s my power,” Chara croaked “My Magic… my Soul. Take it, Asriel. Take it, and w-we’ll-” Chara’s face seized in sudden pain, their body lurching as a small cry left their lips. Asriel clutched at their shoulders, fear pounding hot iron into the back of his mouth. 

“Chara! Chara,  _ please!”  _ He scrambled for something to say, anything to stop what was happening. He scrambled for anything that could wipe the damningly peaceful smile that was encroaching on Chara’s face. 

 

They looked at him, their eyes bleary and unclear. The hand that didn’t clutch at theirs slowly lifted, coming to touch the bridge of Asriel’s forehead. Chara’s voice took on an edge of firmness, of certainty. 

“Take my Soul. I trust you… take…we’re going… to free… e v e r….yo ne.” Their eyes fluttered, dark lashes sliding shut. The punishing grip surrounding Asriel’s hands slackened. 

 

Asriel bowed his head, pressing his forehead against his sibling’s chest. He shook and cried in silence as the pulse beneath him stuttered, slowed, and finally fell silent. 

 

****

He wasn’t sure how much time passed. It should only have been a few moments, but to Asriel it felt like he was floating in darkness. It was all he could see, jet and endless. 

It made the eventual red glow all the brighter. It shone like a beacon, blinding and pulsing in the shape of a red heart. 

Asriel knew it’s name. He reached out, blindly groping in the darkness. 

_ “Chara!”  _

There was a breath of silence. Asriel’s hand closed around the red light, holding it close to his chest. He called out into the darkness, shouting their name.  _ “Chara! Chara, where are you?!”  _

 

A breeze ghosted through the darkness, chilling his fur. On it, an answer. 

**_“Asriel.”_ **

 

The Soul in Asriel’s paws stuttered, swelling so that all he could see was crimson light. 

 

Then he was no longer Asriel. 

They were no longer Chara. 

Both opened their eyes, seeing and knowing as one what had to be done. 

_ I trust you. _

**_I trust you too._ **

 

****

Chara’s body felt light in their arms, though they supposed it was because they were bigger like this. On the outside, they were Asriel, but an Asriel that was different from the child that had existed before. With Chara they were taller, their horns sprouting from their scalp to twist in an arch over their head. With passing the barrier, raindrops dampened their fur. Inside, Asriel marvelled at the feeling of it. 

 

Chara lead them down the mountain path, part memory and part sixth sense. The rain continued to fall, causing the trees to whisper amongst themselves. They seemed to be muttering at them as they passed, as if their mere existence was something new, something  _ other.  _

 

_ Feels strange… _

 

**_It’s ok, Asriel. It’s all according to plan._ **

 

The foot of the mountain held cupped in it a village that sent a sweeping hate through them. It took Asriel a moment to understand that the emotion was from his sibling. It was a black feeling, and he shivered against it as it settled sickly in his stomach. It tugged him forward, inexorably magnetic. Together they walked, approaching the floating lanterns that burned like their mother’s fire Magic. What had once been Chara’s body, felt cold in their arms. 

 

At the edge of the village, gold caught Asriel’s eye. Like coins laid out on the soil, a bed of flowers brushed their feet. They were the same flowers that sat in the throne room, and the same flowers that had brought so much pain. They were the flowers that sent Chara’s Soul twinging in memory. 

Asriel made them halt. He looked down at the body cradled in their arms, now lifeless and small, wrapped only in the matching twin to his own sweater. He felt his chest tighten in grief, misery clutching at him like a cloak. 

 

_ You’re not coming back after this… are you? _

 

Chara’s silence was as good of an answer as anything else they might have given. Asriel swallowed against the burning inside of his chest as he made them halt before the flowers. 

**_What are you doing?_ **

 

He let his actions speak for him. Resting Chara’s body amongst the flowers, he touched their ice-cold cheek. Eyes closed, they looked like they were sleeping. He didn’t pay the tears any mind this time. 

**_Sentimental crybaby._ **

Chara’s voice held no heat. Softer, they muttered.

**_This isn’t my home, anyway._ **

 

Asriel looked to the village ahead of them, still unwilling to move from the small body before him. The chill of what his sibling wanted to do sat with him, heavy as a leaden stone. He trusted Chara, but the hate that was rolling from them tasted bitter and unstable. It rose like iron in the back of his throat, warring with his own grief. He felt the power they held humming in his veins like a firecracker. He barely recognised it as his own. 

**_Az, we need to set everyone free._ **

_ I don’t like this.  _

**_They deserve everything they get._ **

Chara’s voice was cold, colder than Asriel had ever heard it. A bitter wind picked up, tussling with the flowers beneath their feet. Ahead, lanterns flickered in the night as they were plucked at by invisible fingers. 

 

Someone was coming, a distant shadow in the dark. The shape was obscured by the fog. A voice called out, gruff and suspicious. 

“Who goes there?!” 

_ We should turn back. _

**_N o ._ **

The weight of Chara’s will suddenly settled in on Asriel, iron-tight and resolute. He felt frozen, caught by their Determination and the Magic coursing through him. An unrecognisable,  _ dark  _ Magic. He gasped with it, shuddering at its touch. He couldn’t twitch, couldn’t turn back. 

 

The figure melted into the shape of a man, heavy-set and wielding a torch in a meaty fist. The glimmer of his eyes were wide in the dark, and only grew wider as they took in the creature that stood before him. He stopped, the air whooshing out of him in an exhale that was physical enough to make his shoulders heave. 

Chara’s voice was like knives under Asriel’s skin. 

**_Kill him!_ **

_ N-No- _

_ “M-Monster!” _ The man screamed, the cry piercing the darkness. It shattered Asriel’s stillness, made them take a step back, away from Chara’s body and their will. The man looked down at their feet, and in doing so paled as he saw the child lying in the flowers. His face twisted into a snarl of hate, a demon in the torchlight. “It’s killed one of our  _ children! Monster!”  _

 

Chara’s anger rose only as more people shuffled out of their houses, at first sleepy-eyed, only to turn into anger and fear. 

**_You idiot! Asriel, you idiot!_ **

_ Chara!  _

They were becoming surrounded by Humans, dozens of them appearing from the fog and shadows like wraiths. The screams began, accusations and cries of fear. It hurt Asriel’s ears, he wanted to cover them with his paws. 

“Child killer!” 

“Get out of our village!”

“Demon!” 

A hand in the dark raised a stone. It struck Asriel across the forehead, breaking against the strength of his horns. He winced at the cracking sound. 

**_Asriel, we need to fight back!_ **

_ I… I-  _

“MONSTER!” 

 

Another rock sailed through the air, followed quickly by a poorly-aimed stick. Asriel felt the first flickerings of fear course through him. They took another few steps, scrambling away from Chara’s body and from the village. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to run. These people, these Humans that his Chara had come from, they were animals. 

**_F I G H T   DAMN IT! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!_ **

_ I CAN’T!  _

Asriel wailed, and he wasn’t sure if this time he wasn’t speaking aloud.

 

Divided, they couldn’t run or strike out. They merely stood as the projectiles began to hail down, as the Humans began to gather their torches and their knives. 

 

So much power, and in the end they fell to simple, man-made violence. 

**_Run, Asriel. Please, just… run._ **

_...Not without you...  _

**_Then take me with you. But. please._ **

_ Chara… I’m sorry. _

 

The lack of answer, was what hurt the most. 

 

****

Determination. 

Chara had known what that word meant, long before they’d come to the Underground. For it, they had been called a Witch. A Demon. 

Once, a sibling. 

 

It hurt, oh how their power hurt them. 

The will to live, what good was it, when the one they wanted to be with had turned to dust long ago? Here they were, a shadow of themselves, unable to move on because of their choices. 

But that was the price, wasn’t it? Even if they had failed…

They would always be here, at the place where their true mother had buried them, amongst yellow flowers. 

Until the underground went free, they would remain. 

 

Until someone came, someone with a Soul as red as their own… 

They would  **linger.**

Unable to die. Unable to live. Stuck in a limbo between spaces, Darker Yet Darker. 

 

They would watch, as they were replaced again and again by their mother, trying to fill a void. They would wonder if they meant anything to her after all. 

They would watch, as their father broke himself over his children’s sacrifice. They would ask him why he hadn’t acted sooner, when Asriel could be saved. 

They would watch a flower grow, one with a face, and pretend they couldn’t hear as it sometimes cried for forgiveness they could not give. 

**_You never trusted me, after all._ **

They would grow bitter, and dark, until they became something that wasn’t quite human at all. 

 

A child with a blue and pink sweater would fall. 

They would see as this child walked through the Underground, and wait for a chink in their goodness. Wait for them to reach and touch their own Magic, so nearly identical to theirs. 

**_And they would end it ._ **

Because the only one you could trust was yourself, and if you could only trust yourself, then what were other people for? 


End file.
